At least 12 dead, seemingly in retaliation for mocking Islam (most famously for running the Dutch Muhammed cartoon), gunmen still on the loose. I think the French people are going to do more than mocking after this, yet I hope somehow things don't escalate further. Hard to imagine though with the killers still out there.

It's certainly going to be a big deal for France nationally, definitely the biggest terrorist strike since the series of attacks committed in 1995. It might not be immediately apparent to foreigners, but Charlie Hebdo isn't just any satirical magazine, it's been around for 50 years and has always frontally taken on the high and mighty, from Charles de Gaulle to the current president and any and all media personalities, religions, etc. A lot of people are evoking 9/11 here right now, because this event will most likely durably affect the national climate.

Maybe I just live under a rock, and I hate to come off as a self centered American, but it's bizarre seeing terrorism affect other parts of the world outside of the US and the Middle East. It's just been such a huge part of our culture for the last 13 years (and really, longer--I just wasn't fully aware of it) that if someone asked me yesterday, which Western country would most likely be attacked in an Islamic terrorist strike, I'd hands down say the US.

My thoughts go out to the French, and especially to the families of the people who were murdered. It's insane, and I hate it.

As a Canadian, I am feeling the same emotion of fear and shock that I felt when we experienced a shooting at Parliament in Ottawa on October 22 this past year. It's just as unexpected and you never think about how vulnerable we are until something as horrific as this comes around. (Having a significant other in the Canadian Military didn't ease my stress either, our Forces have been targeted out in broad daylight recently, and it terrifies me knowing that my boyfriend could have been one of those attacked because of his part in the Canadian Forces.)My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of France today, the best of luck pulling through this.

Still in shock. I left france almost ten years ago. The social climate in France was becoming quite austere and I suppose this will be used as a formidable tool by the far-right. Kind of utopic but i'd like to see the hesitant people who could potentially support this political view break away, experiencing the lack of empathy their leader are currently showing.

The two brothers who gunned down the cartoonists were killed by the GIGN, French's SWAT force, in a small village. They'd taken refuge in a warehouse where two men was working at the time. One was taken hostage and released later in the morning, the other actually escaped their vigilance by hiding in a box under a sink, from where he managed to give police information on the criminals as well as on the layout of the place. Kojima would be proud.

In parallel another guy (who had killed a cop and a street cleaner yesterday after having a car accident while on the way to somewhere) attacked a kosher foodstore in Paris (targeted expressly to harm Jewish people) where he took hostages, and unfortunately killed four of them very early on. One was a woman who tried to wrestle his weapon away from him but unfortunately failed to do so and was shot. The RAID (another SWAT-type organization from a different branch of law enforcement) took care of that situation and neutralized the guy as well, and only then was it discovered that he'd already killed people hours ago when he had first invested the place. His girlfriend (they were "religiously married") is still being actively tracked down, as they fear she might pose a threat as well.

One was taken hostage and released later in the morning, the other actually escaped their vigilance by hiding in a box under a sink, from where he managed to give police information on the criminals as well as on the layout of the place. Kojima would be proud.